Does Bureaucracy Really Matter? The Authority of Intergovernmental Treaty Secretariats in Global Environmental Politics

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steffen Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Design ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Montreal Protocol ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Organizational Theories

Although a number of scholars acknowledge the relevance of intergovernmental bureaucracies in world politics, International Relations research still lacks theoretical distinction and empirical scrutiny in understanding their influence in the international arena. In this article I explore the role of intergovernmental treaty secretariats as authoritative bureaucratic actors in global environmental politics. I employ organizational theories and sociological institutionalism for comparative qualitative case study research that traces variances at the outcome level of two environmental treaty secretariats, the secretariats to the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol (“Ozone Secretariat”) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (“Desertification Secretariat”). While the organizational design of both secretariats is similar, their institutional histories and outcomes differ markedly. Looking for possible explanations for these differences I focus on the activities of both secretariats and how they relate to the authority they enjoy vis-à-vis the parties they serve.

The Third World and Global Environmental Negotiations: Interests, Institutions and Ideas

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Williams
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Third World ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
The Third ◽  
Environmental Negotiations ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The Third World

Marian Miller provided an engaging and persuasive analysis of the role of Third World states in global environmental negotiations. While Miller focused on the strategies of individual states, this article examines the collective agency of the Third World in global environmental negotiations. The first part of the article explores the debates on the continuing relevance of the Third World as a concept, and contends that the Third World retains relevance in the context of global bargaining processes. The second part of the article highlights the role of ideas and institutions in the continued reproduction of the Third World as an actor in global environmental politics. The final part of the article explores the ways in which the negotiations on climate change have tended to reproduce a distinctive Southern perspective.

Introduction

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica F. Green
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
The Third ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Private Authority ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Private Actors ◽  
Ruffed Lemur

This book examines how the global environment is regulated and, in particular, the diversity of actors involved in addressing the problem of climate change. It considers the role of private actors, such as nongovernmental organizations and transnational networks, in global environmental politics. It shows that private actors are increasingly assuming duties normally associated with governments. They are taking on the role of regulators, as they create, implement, and enforce rules to manage global environmental problems. The book asks when and why private actors perform these regulatory roles. It cites three examples to demonstrate the diversity of private authority and the ways in which nonstate actors are serving as rule makers: the first deals with Walmart, the second is about the ruffed lemur, and the third relates to the Kyoto Protocol. The book distinguishes between two different types of private authority: delegated authority and entrepreneurial authority.

scholarly journals Researching Global Environmental Politics in the 21st Century

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dauvergne ◽  
Jennifer Clapp
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Research Trends ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Private Actors

This forum article highlights three major research trends we have observed in the journal Global Environmental Politics since 2000. First, research has increasingly focused on specific and formal mechanisms of global environmental governance, contributing to more elaborate and refined methodologies that span more scales and levels of analysis. Second, research increasingly has concentrated on the rise of market-based governance mechanisms and the influence of private actors, reflecting a broader shift among policymakers toward liberal approaches to governance. Third, over this time empirical research has shifted significantly toward analyzing issues through a lens of climate change, providing valuable insights into environmental change, but narrowing the journal’s empirical focus. These trends, which overlap in complex ways, arise partly from shifts in real-world politics, partly from broader shifts in the overall field of global environmental politics (GEP), and partly from the advancing capacity of GEP theories and methodologies to investigate the full complexity of local to global governance. This maturing of GEP scholarship does present challenges for the field, however, including the ability of field-defining journals such as Global Environmental Politics to engage a diversity of critical scholarly voices and to influence policy and activism.

scholarly journals Transnational Actors and Transnational Governance in Global Environmental Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hale
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Transnational Governance ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Core Elements

Transnational actors and transnational governance now form core elements of global environmental politics alongside intergovernmental diplomacy and institutions. This article explores how and under what conditions this transnationalism has arisen, as well as its implications for world politics. It considers what effects transnational actors and governance have had on political outcomes, their relation to states and intergovernmental institutions, and normative questions around their legitimacy and accountability. The critical role of transnational actors and institutions in environmental politics has made the field a laboratory for broader questions concerning the evolution of global governance in world politics more generally. As global environmental challenges continue to magnify and affect other spheres of political activity, understanding these dynamics will become increasingly important.

The new climate leaders?

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-857 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELE ACUTO
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Planning Approach ◽  
Significant Case ◽  
Leadership Group

AbstractLittle interest has thus far been paid to the role of cities in world politics. Yet, several are the examples of city-based engagements suggesting an emerging urban presence in international relations. The Climate Leadership Group, despite its recent lineage, is perhaps the most significant case of metropolitan intersection with global governance. To illustrate this I rely on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to develop a qualitative network analysis of the evolution of the C40 in the past seven years from a limited gathering of municipal leaders to a transnational organisation partnering with the World Bank. Pinpointed on the unfolding of a twin diplomacy/planning approach, the evolution of the C40 can demonstrate the key role of global cities as actors in global environmental politics. These cities have a pivotal part in charting new geographies of climate governance, prompting the rise of subpolitical policymaking arrangements pinpointed on innovative and hybrid connections. Yet, there remains some important rational continuity, in particular with neoliberalism, which ultimately limits the revolutionary potential these cities might have for international relations.

Ecofeminism and Global Environmental Politics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliann Emmons Allison
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ecological Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Francoise D'eaubonne

Ecofeminism can be described as both an ecological philosophy and a social movement that draws on environmental studies, critiques of modernity and science, and feminist critical analyses and activism to explicate connections between women and nature, and the implications of these relationships for environmental politics. Feminist writer Françoise d’Eaubonne is widely credited to be the founder of ecofeminism in the early 1970s. Ecofeminists embrace a wide range of views concerning the causal role of Western dualistic thinking, patriarchal structures of power, and capitalism in ecological degradation, and the oppression of women and other subjugated peoples. Collectively, they find value in extending feminist analyses to the simultaneous interrogation of the domination of both nature and women. The history of ecofeminism may be divided into four decade-long periods. Ecofeminism emerged in the early 1970s, coincident with a significant upturn in the contemporary women’s and environmental movements. In the 1980s, ecofeminism entered the academy as ecofeminist activists and scholars focused their attention on the exploitation of natural resources and women, particularly in the developing world. They criticized government and cultural institutions that constrained women’s reproductive and productive roles in society, and argued that environmental protection ultimately depends on increasing women’s socioeconomic and political power. In the current postfeminist and postenvironmentalist world, ecofeminists are less concerned with theoretical labels than with effective women’s activism to achieve ecological sustainability.

Leadership in Global Environmental Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanna Kopra
Keyword(s):  
Common Good ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Issue ◽  
International Negotiations ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Leaders And Followers

There is wide consensus among global environmental politics (GEP) scholars about the urgent need for leadership in international climate negotiations and other environmental issue areas A large number of GEP studies elaborate rhetoric and actions of aspiring leaders in GEP. In particular, these studies seek to identify which states have sought to provide leadership in international negotiations on the environment, and how they have exercised this role in institutional bargaining processes at the international level. The biggest share of GEP studies generally focus on leadership in environmental governance within the United Nations (UN), and international negotiations on climate under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in general, or the role of the European Union (EU) in those negotiations in particular. Many GEP scholars have also investigated the leadership role of the United States in international environmental regime formation, whereas there are no systematic investigations concerning China’s leadership in GEP. In addition to the states, GEP literature identifies a wide range of other actors as potential leaders (and followers) in environmental issue areas: international organizations, non-governmental organizations, corporations, cities, religious organizations, social movements, politicians, and even individuals. Since leadership is a social relation, a growing number of scholars have moved to study perceptions of leadership and to conceptualize the relationship between leaders and followers. GEP scholars also identify some qualitative aspects a leader must have in order to attract followers. Many empirical studies show that despite the EU’s aspiration to be a climate leader, it is not unequivocally recognized as such by others. At the same time, it seems that some forms of leadership, especially those based on unilateral action, do not necessarily require followers and recognition by others. In addition to the leader–follower relationship, the motivation of leadership constitutes one of the key controversies among GEP scholars. Some argue that self-interest is a sufficient driver of leadership, while others claim that leaders must act for the common good of a wider constituency (or at least be perceived to do so). To conclude, most scholars studying leadership in GEP regard structural leadership (based on material capabilities and hard power) as an important type of leadership. Much less attention has been paid to the social dimensions of leadership; this is undoubtedly a gap in the literature that prospective studies ought to fill.

11. Global Politics in the Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
pp. 251-273
Author(s):  
Stephanie Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Global Environment ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Impact

This chapter studies how the scope of global politics has been extended over the last half century or so to include the impact of human industrial activity on the environment. The environmental movement and ‘green theory’ have grown out of concerns with the deleterious impact of this activity and the capacity of the planet to carry the burden of ‘business as usual’ in a world driven by the imperatives of endless growth. Many now believe that the impact on the earth’s systems is so significant that the present geological period should be recognized as the ‘Anthropocene’. Climate change is probably the most prominent issue associated with the Anthropocene at present, but it is not the only one. The chapter examines a range of issues in global environment politics, starting with the reconceptualization of the present period. It then moves on to an account of the environmental movement, the emergence of various ‘green’ ideologies and theories, and the politics of science. This is essential background for considering the role of the state and its sovereign powers in the context of global environmental politics.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document